I had an interesting viewing night on Saturday night. I watched Practical Magic, which I’ve never seen. Liked it. I watched Legally Blonde, which was very good, which I also hadn’t seen. Then my partner, whips out The Substance. Now I didn’t know much about this movie except that Demi Moore got a few nods for it. Also, I’m not into horror. Picture me with a blanket over my head, fingers in my ears, going lalalalalala while the graphic gory bits played out. (I did this a few times during the viewing)
Having said all that, there are some interesting pros to this movie and also some cons.
Possible spoliers
The pros
The movie is not subtle at all. This is also a con but I will move on. It is vivid and bright and stylised in a way that keeps you interested visually, which is important for a movie. I don’t think I got visually bored. Appalled at times. Revolted, yes. From the camera angles looking up at palms, to the over the shoulder handicam view of Demi walking along, to the long shot of a gorgeous orange corridor with kind of 1960s themed pattern going on.
The story themes are what is it is most powerful elements. It’s about beauty, aging and youth and society’s views, male gaze, male dominance in the entertainment industry and the lengths a woman would go to, Elisabeth, to keep the youth and her position and status. Dennis Quaid plays Harvey, the studio executive who is repulsive, sexist, asshole and like I said not subtle at all. He eats like a pig, pisses like a pig, talks like shit is flying out of his mouth, and he’s fake and lecherous. You know…mmm. Harvey…Dennis does a great job. He is the main male protagonist, but he has a bunch of cardboard cutout execs following him around.
Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an ageing, on the verge of being let go, beauty and exercise show host. She looks great btw. Enter The Substance, something that kind of gives her a clone, a younger version of herself. The whole generating this other self was pretty explicitly gory and daunting. The rule is only seven days each, no exceptions. There are a set of rules too, feed that, do this. Only seven days worth of stuff is given at a time and Elisabeth has to fetch more from a deposit box.
Younger Elisabeth called Sue is beautiful, wows the men, gyrates like she’s escaped from a porn movie and is a big hit. Both actresses spend a lot of the time in the movie naked, lying down seeming dead naked. Sue delights in her body, her youth and her success and well wants more time.
I won’t dwell too much more on the actual plot here but this is a rather forthright indictment of our society, of its focus on beauty and the lengths the character, particularly Sue goes to keep that male gaze, to sell her beauty, to be a success. It also looks at the self destructive side of the pursuit of beauty and how to be beautiful woman and girls can harm themselves.
Cons
There are so many plot holes it is like someone took a shotgun to it. My partner says it is meant to be a fable but as a writer the plot holes worried me. Why do the people who make The Substance not charge for it, why are they not extorting Elisabeth for more money, each time. I think that would also highlight a nasty aspect of our world, greed and exploitation. However, the movie is silent on that.
The rules are a bit strange and the application of them is not consistent. Sue is able to steal time and I wasn’t quite clear how she could do that, but it had consquences. Also, toward the end that rule didn’t apply at all.
Some of the body horror stuff, particularly the surgery was not really plausible. Also, Elisabeth is in a horrific car accident and is unharmed. No explanation of that. My SF brain was thinking ‘is she somehow special? Already artificial?’
A few explicit scenes were like being blungeoned and there is a less is more element here. If you see the movie you will know what I mean.
The ending
The ending went on too long. There were a few places it could have ended and been powerful and got the message across. However, it just went on to this over the top blood bath that might have been paying homage to The Elephant Man and some well know horror movies. Yet, I watched as literally everything gets covered in blood, like a symbolic staining, marring of the superficial beauty of the set. Also, the people, the people who promote, support and consume beauty. Having said that I don’t watch horror habitually and it was kid of bizarre at the end and also stylistic.
Summary
I can see why it caught people’s attention. The motives, the commentary are worthy and most of the delivery is visionary and stunning. The acting was good. Demi was brilliant and so was Margaret Qualley. Kudos to Carolie Fargeat for making it. It was an outstanding statement despite its flaws. It is definitely a ‘be careful what you wish for’ story reminiscent of early Twighlight Zone episodes with heaps of colour and pizzaz that ramps it up to 100.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 